Alfawise X5 Intel Mini PC Android TV Box Review

Today we have the first mini PC by Alfawise the Alfawise X5 Intel mini PC and Android TV Box. In this review I will be testing both the Windows OS and the Android OS with benchmarks scores. There is one other mini PC I have come across with dual operating systems and that is the CHUWI Hi Box Hero which was a really scored high in the benchmarks. So I am hoping that the X5 could deliver in a similar fashion.

Hardware Specifications

Let’s talk about the CPU. The X5 runs on the 64bit Intel Atom Cherry Trail Z8350 quad core CPU, but the maximum clock range is different for the two operating systems. The windows OS runs up to 1.4GHz, and the Android OS runs up to 1.9GHz. However the Android OS which is Android 5.1 only has support for 32bit ABIs.

The GPU is the Intel HD graphics 400 GPU with a refresh rate of 60hz. The performance of this GPU depends on the processor (different boost speed for the GPU) and the used memory. Gaming performance is only suited for older or less demanding games. Often also the processor is limited gaming performance. The SoC also integrates a video decoding engine that should be able to handle 4K H.265 videos.

The Alfawise X5 comes with 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 32GB of internal storage, with a max capacity of 128GB. The box has extended capacity but that is only via SD or USB, there is no SATA input or M2 inputs. The windows partition was only assigned 15GB of internal storage, and the Android partition was assigned 10GB. The Windows OS was adversely affected by the lack of internal storage with only 2GB remaining after the Windows installation.

The X5 comes with only 2.1GHz WiFi support along with Bluetooth 4.0.

IO Ports

The X5 comes with:

2 USB 2.0

1 USB 3.0

1 HDMI

1 RJ45

1 Headphone jack

1 SD card slot

Benchmarks Scores

Windows:

Antutu -71333

Geekbench4 – 807 single-core 2070 multi-core

Android:

Antutu – 53937

Geekbench4 – 847 single-core and 1909 multi-core

3D Mark Ice Storm – 8511

Ram Copy – 3774 MB/s

Internal Speed – 98 MB/s read and 39 MB/s write

SD Speed – 17 MB/s read and 11 MB/s write

User Experience

The Alfawise X5 Windows installation runs smoothly but I was not able to install programs like Microsoft Office due to the lack of sufficient internal storage. Browsing is good and I could not get any major games to install also due the storage issues. On the Android installation on the other hand the experience inspite of having Android 5.1 was better than the Windows OS. Kodi and APK streaming services works great, but I had lots of problems with playing certain 4k videos due to file format problems. Gaming however was really good, Android games ran smoothly better than most Android TV boxes.

Conclusion

The concept of a dual OS is a good, they simply needed to double the RAM and install much more internal storage like 64GB and also install Android 6.0 or 7.1, and this would have made the X5 really sexy and appealing to potential buyers. They could have also included a wireless air mouse to top it off.